How to respond to evil

This morning's scripture reading is going to come from uh 1st Samuel chapter 24. 1st Samuel chapter 24. You remember last week as we talked about uh David was on the run as he has been. Saul has been chasing him and uh and was in hot pursuit and then uh and then Saul suddenly by the providence of God was called away because he needed to chase after some Philistines that were raiding into the land of Israel and that pulled him away from David allowed David to narrowly escape in that moment. Uh and it says at the end of the text that David fled to a place called Eninggeti. And so that's where our text is going to pick up this morning. 1st Samuel uh chapter 24, I'll be reading the first 17 verses. When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engeti." Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave. And Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, "Here is the day which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you." Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And he said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed." So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. And afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my lord, the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to the words of the men who say, "Behold, David seeks your harm. Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave, and some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by this fact I cut off the corner of your robe, and I did not kill you. You may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of the ancients says, "Out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you." After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea, may the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand." As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. And he said to David, "You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil." This is God's word. Today we're going to be looking at this text and we see really just a a very compelling story that is so easy to miss and it's so easy to sort of put it sort of far removed from our culture and land and life today. You know, David has been pursued by Saul, falsely accused by Saul, suspicious of Saul, running for his life and now hiding in the recesses of a cave. And there's this powerful moment where David, it's like a gift from God. Saul is right here in the cave in his most vulnerable moment. Easy to strike, easy to take out. Come on. David's men can't even believe it. They're like, "This is this is wild." Of all the caves he could have chosen, of all the places that we happen to be hiding, it's like he's just laid out before us. It's all too easy. David, take him out. Come on, man. It's a sign from God. And they're so just so bent on it. And David crawls forward in this very compelling moment into the cave, sneaks up behind Saul, and in that moment decides not to kill him, cuts off a corner of his robe, comes back to his men, and his men are beside themselves. The the the vocabulary in the Hebrew is different than in your English translations where they he literally almost there's hints that he may physically have had to restrain them because they're like, "If you're not going to kill him, I'm going to kill him." this running, it can end right now. All of this can stop. So, what we find today ultimately is that David shows us how to respond to evil. Saul has treated David evily. Says it in these words, David, you've shown me good, but I've shown you evil. And ultimately, the text focuses on this idea of how we are responding and how we are called to respond to evil. Now, we may think about evil. We may think about enemies as something that seems maybe more conceptual because we don't find ourselves in a cave hiding for our life. We don't find ourselves, you know, in a situation and it may seem like, well, and I don't have a dagger in my hand ready to take out my enemy and maybe I don't feel like I would ever do that. But ultimately, responding to our enemy, responding to evil is something that we all deal with. And just maybe to bring it a little bit more granular as I thought about it. And I and I'm talking about on an individual level. How we respond to our enemy, how we respond to evil, certainly what we're going to see today when I say the individual level is going to be different than the government's level. The government has a job. If you just read Romans 13,  God has set up the institution of the government of the land to punish those who are evil. They bear the sword for that reason is what it says. And so I'm not talking about that today. I'm talking about individually in your own lives and even as the people of God and as the church how we are called to respond to evil, how we're called to respond to our enemy and to evil. Think about it like this. Just I just thought of different scenarios of of maybe pain or ways that we've been inflicted. And I never know the stories or the room, but I wanted to bring this close. And so just all the variety of ways people can have a weap can have an enemy, can be treated evily. Maybe it's an expouse who weaponizes the kids against you, lies about you in court, and continues to manipulate years after the relationship ended. A parent who consistently belittled you growing up, leaving emotional scars. A former friend who turned vindictive, vindictive, spreading rumors and cost you other relationships. Someone who stole money, savings, or property from you, especially someone you trusted. A business partner who deceived you, leaving you financially and reputationally damaged. A spiritual leader who abused their position using fear, favoritism, or manipulation to control people. A neighbor who seems committed to making your life miserable through constant complaints, harassment, or spiteful behavior. A co-orker who quietly undermines you, subtly digs, selectively forgetting, or strategic sabotage. A family member who uses every gathering to embarrass, provoke, or guilt trip you, making sarcastic, demeaning comments with a smile. Someone who pretends to support you but secretly roots for your failure. A person who takes advantage of your kindness again and again with no intention of reciprocating. a relationship where the other person continually has sabotaged your life and the reality around you, accusing you of things that you have not done. And the list could go on and on in life. But we've probably all at some point been in David's shoes. We've been wrongfully treated. We've faced evil. And I say these because it's so close. And this text digs into places in our own hearts where we have that same temptation as David. Get the knife. Respond, David. So, how are we called from this text to respond to evil? We're going to be looking at three things today and then a fourth. First three are these. We're going to have to realize that worldly reasoning is incomplete. We're going to have to revere God and respond to godly conviction. And then we're going to have to I'm going to change a little bit say rightly respond to evil as we're called. And so let's take a look at it today. The first one is and and how do we respond to evil? Realize that worldly reasoning is incomplete. David's men are reasoning with worldly reasoning, worldly wisdom. And honestly, in every way, it makes a lot of sense from just a general way. Your enemy is here. He's laid out before you. We have been running. He's trying to kill us. This is self-defense. David, take him out. What are you doing? We see here in verse four of the text where he says, "And the men of David said to him, here is the day which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you." Then David arose stealthily and cut off a corner of Saul's robe. The men are looking. They're like, "It's a sign. It's a sign from God." You know, like the Lord's going to give him to you. Take the action. Self-defense. You're off the hook. And this just looks all too easy to them here in this moment. And this is the worldly reasoning that they have. They've even in a sense begun to quote a prophecy to David in this moment. We'll talk about that in just a second. But it seems like something that is just uh that is an action that we should take. But there are problems that we begin to uncover as we look at this. And one of the problems already just off the end of the bat is there is no guarantee that if they kill Saul in that cave and David walks out and says, "I took him out." that these devoted and it says chosen 3,000 men won't turn and say, "You killed our Lord. He was part of our tribe, tribe of Benjamin. Some of these men kill him. Take David." And all of David's men are now trapped in the back of a cave where they cannot escape. And how well this might have looked and seemed like a good idea could quickly have turned into a bad idea. But but even more so than that, there's a couple things that we see that the author is actually hinting at. one, we have no record of this prophecy anywhere in the scriptures. In essence, I actually think cuz let's just look at for a second. Says, "The man said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you." So, this is sort of like the prophecy that they're quoting, but we don't have any record of it. And I don't I don't think it's actually a prophecy. I think David's men are reading the signs in the cloud, reading the writing on the wall and saying, "Here's a prophecy for you, David." Because as we begin to look at it, we begin to see there's a problem even with the way that this prophecy is worded that the Lord is like laid it out and said, "Avenge, David. Heal." That that goes against ultimately the grain of scripture where the Lord says, "Vengeance is mine." We'll look at that in just a second here. But there's one of the things that's not worded in in in your English Bibles in many times that actually gives us even a deeper clue at this right there in verse four when they say to this. It says, "And you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you." What it actually literally says in there is you shall do to him as it seems good in your eyes. It literally says the word eyes. As it seems good in your eyes, David. And if we really think back just to our recent biblical history and we just go back to the book of Judges, which is right before this time of the kings, one of the themes that comes out of the book of Judges is there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Do what is right in your own eyes, David. Do what is good in your eyes. This prophecy is a false prophecy. And this claim right here that they're saying just hints at so much of the spirit of the age and the spirit that was just a time leading into this time of the kings. Come on, David. But the reasoning once again of the world is incomplete. And if David just begins to reflect on that, he can see that attacking Saul is only going to cause more problems because ultimately when evil is met with evil, it just continues to build. It just continues this back and forth, tit fortat, over and over, and nothing stops that cycle until someone decides not to respond and return evil with evil. So the worldly reasoning of our world which may seem like a sign even if it's a sign from God but it but it goes against the grain of scripture which by the way just is an aside there anytime we we have a word or a revelation or anything like that and we think this is I I see the open door I see the open window I see these signs does it go against scripture that's a clear red flag and indicator that whatever your prophecy is whatever your writing is whatever you think God might be trying to convict convince you of it will never go against the grain of scripture and what they're quoting here goes clearly against what God would call them to do, how God would call him to act. So there let there be a caution in seeing signs that would go against the character and the nature of God. You know, if if you're not a Christian, you know, I wanted to kind of mention this too is is some people may seem, you know, the spirit of the age is, well, how do we know what is good? How do we know what is right? You know, and and people in our age, in our time today, even do the same thing where we try to read into what is good and what is right. And what do you look to to actually determine what that is? Do you go by David's men and think about worldly reasoning? Do you look at maybe the culture around you that says this is how you should respond? This is how you deal with your enemies. Do you process it just logically in your own head? All the things this person has, all the things that Saul has done to me. I got a laundry list long. I deserve this moment. Saul deserves this moment. He deserves this evil. And all the reasoning can start to spin in circles. And in our age today, that's what we do is we look at our circumstances. We look to our culture. We look to our own selves, which is really a labyrinth that is always changing. And we try to find your truth, your good. And then we use that to meet evil. And we don't want to use the reasoning of this world or the reasoning of our own selves. We want to look to God's word ultimately to allow that to shape how we respond. And so that's our second thing here is that we see in meeting evil and responding to evil and to our enemy, we are called to revere God and respond to godly conviction. to revere God and respond to godly conviction. God shows us through his word. He shows us through his character who he is. He reveals those things to us so that we might, knowing who he is, live that out in our own lives. He he put his spirit within his people to to steer and to convict and to help them to see the difference between good and evil because you can't find it out there because all of those things change. the culture changes, the world changes, your heart changes, all of those, they're unconssistent. Only God's word is consistently true and guides us and tells us how to live out these things and how to rightly respond. David here in this moment though, he feels conviction over cutting Saul's robe. We see that in verse 5. It says that David afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. David, David reacts in that moment. He comes up with the knife. He's ready to kill Saul in that moment. And for some reason, you know, his men have already encouraged him. They've they've got that false prophecy ready. They're like, "It's a sign. They're sending David." And David crawls up there stealthily. And something in that moment just doesn't feel right. Something in that moment just seems not to be what he does. And and David begins to remember something about who Saul is. And he's not all all evil. This is a guy that knew Saul. He knew his good and his bad. like most of us and something in him just began to be convicted and so David in that moment reacts by just cutting off a corner of Saul's garment and he crawls back to his men but even in that moment it says what says his heart was convicted God was beginning through the spirit to steer David to speak to David this is not what you should do David this is not how you should live and and part of the reason that his heart convicts him even in that moment is in the ancient near east cutting off part of a garment often times was a sign of either disrespect or disloyalty. So, right there, David is almost like kind of taking a step down. I'm not going to kill him, but you know what? I'm just going to I'm going to cause like a sign of disloyalty and embarrassment and humiliation to him by cutting off and doing disrespect because you know what? He deserves it. And something about David's heart in that moment still isn't right. It's still not righteous. He may not have killed Saul, but he he seeks to sort of in a way cut off part of his garment. and and and in some reasons ancient cultures would look at it as you were severing part of the garment from a person and there was a there was a a claim of ownership in a way part of this kingdom's mine and so there was a sense in which David was still still in a way very subtly attacking at Saul subtly looking for revenge and because he knows his heart isn't right even in that the Lord begins to convict him and he begins to speak to David in our own hearts and in our own lives We should listen to that voice. Not our own voice, not our own heart, but the voice of God because he does put conviction within our hearts. And if we're quiet and we create space in our heart to listen to the Lord, to seek him, to rightly revere the Lord, to want to live life as he called us to live because he loves us and he made us. Because that is the best way to live. That often times begins to direct our heart and our life. and our convictions begin to align more and more with his convictions, with God's convictions in these moments and how we are to treat the people around us. How we are called to respond even when every fiber of our being says no. No. But some reason in this moment David doesn't. So why does David not strike Saul? Because he fears God. David understands the character and the nature of God that has been revealed even in the Old Testament, even through the law of Moses and the books of Moses that were revealed. David knows that God had chosen Saul. He had anointed Saul. The spirit of God was upon Saul. David may not have the spiritual eyes to see all that we see here as the readers of this text to know that the spirit had left Saul and Saul had an evil spirit. We don't know what David knew. David just knew that at one day Samuel laid hands on this guy. And he said, "This is the chosen one. This is the anointed king of Israel." And David looks at that and knows, "This is not my place to judge. This is not my place to strike. God set him up. God can take him down." And we see this even through the Old Testament in the in the books in the law of Moses. If you look at Deuteronomy 32:35,  you see that it says, "Vengeance is mine and recompense for the time when their foot shall slip, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly." Vengeance is mine. Ultimately, the Lord is the one who avenges because, you know, we don't make that good of judges. We're just not very good at it. Because when you seek to judge, when you seek to inflict revenge, when you say, "I'm going to do that thing, when David wants to take over this responsibility, or when you want to do it yourself, you begin to take whose place?" God's place. Who's supposed to be the avenger? Who does the revenge come from? It comes from God. And ultimately, in this, it's not David's place to do that. But you know what? also don't handle judgment and revenge that well. Number one, because we're we're we're just flawed as human beings. We tend to give oursel the benefit of the doubt. A lot of times, we tend to see all of the good and the right things that we're doing. And how do we see other people? We don't give them the benefit of the doubt. We see all the wrong things they've done. And there is a pride that can begin to develop in our own heart when we judge. That raises us up above someone else that begins to make us look as we're innocent. We've done everything right. And I don't know about all these other people who haven't figured it out. We don't handle it very well. The book of Romans 2 reminds us of this because often times when we judge someone, we wind up doing the same exact thing in our own life. We commit the same problems when we do it. Romans 2 tells us, "Therefore you have no excuse, oh man, every one of you who judges, for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself. You condemn yourself because you the judge practice the very same things." Romans 2. Ultimately, Paul is telling us right here that like when you judge, you wind up falling into that same trap. Sometimes it's immediately. If David kills Saul, he becomes like Saul. He's stooped to Saul's level. He's a murderer of a guy right there. He comes up behind him and stabs him. That makes him no better than Saul. It also makes him guilty of doing exactly what he's been accused of. What's David accused of? He's accused of raising his hand up against Saul. He's got it out for Saul. He wants the kingdom. And we know that David's not got that agenda in mind. But if he kills Saul in this moment, how does everybody in the land see it? They see it just like that. David has become exactly the man that he was accused of being. Saul had every right to go chase that guy. Saul saw what we all didn't see. He knew that David had it out for him. And we become that same exact thing in our own life when we inflict that evil on that other person. Get him back. Go after him. Take that revenge in that moment. And we just become like the one that has done all of that to us. It changes you. It changes who God made you to be. We don't handle judgment. We don't handle revenge well. That's why we look to the Lord to do these things. That's why we trust God, the ultimate judge of all things. Because when we pull it into our own hands, not only do we take God's place, it twists us. It does something inside of us and it begins to create us into a different kind of person. And that person that bullied us and that was mean to us, we start becoming that bully. We start becoming vindictive. And so God says, "You've got to release that. You've got to let that go. You've got to trust and revere me as God. You think I don't see. You think I don't know. You don't think that I'm I'm absent or I won't take care of these things. I am working." And if that's one of the themes that we've seen constantly throughout this book as we've studied it is God is at work. God is working. God is sovereign and God has a plan and a purpose. And even in this when it looks like, hey, this is this is the plan of God in this moment. David needs to be very discerning. He needs to be very discerning of the character of God and the nature of God. He needs to not listen to worldly wisdom in this moment, but think about what what and how God has called him to respond and to live in his life. And in that moment, he needs to not take the vengeance, to let it go, to listen to what the voice of God is saying in his own life. And in the same way for you and for I, we've got to do the same thing. Listen to the voice of God. Don't repay evil with evil. Don't meet evil with evil. And that's what David ultimately shows us here. Third thing is is that we need to respond appropriately to evil or rightly respond to evil. I had a lot of Rs today. I really thought about it. It was ridiculous. And there's another R. Um rightly respond to evil. Uh ultimately we see that we're we're called not to to ret when we respond to evil, we tend to do one of two things. You tend to either take revenge on the person or oftenimes what happens is we also retreat. revenge or retreat. Somebody wronged me and I'm going to go get them and I'm going to get even. Or we try to kind of absorb it and we sort of back up and we take it and we kind of go into our own corner. And sometimes that happens and we sort of let that wound just sort of sit in us. And that's that's not the call either here. The call of scripture is to what? To meet good with evil. To not repay evil for evil. to not revenge, but also not to to sit back and retreat, but to make it be known. And we see this throughout the scriptures. We see this here. David could have remained in the cave. He could have not addressed the evil. We see repeatedly here in in several verses, we see in verse 8 where he says, "Afterward, David also arose and went out of the cave and called after my after Saul, my lord, the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and he paid homage." David doesn't just let the good be unknown. He doesn't retreat and say, "Man, we had a chance. We should have done it." He's not sitting wounded. He's not sitting in all that. He wants to make it known. Saul, you're in the wrong, man. Look at all this. And And our response may look different. Maybe it's not coming out of the cave making it be known, but it's meeting the good. And the good that David can do in this moment is just letting it be known to Saul. Look at the good. Look at what we've done in this moment. We could have killed you. So David walks out and there's a risk into that. We don't know how Saul's going to respond in this moment. Saul could have been like, "Get him. There he is." And not cared anything about what David was saying, but David, and I want you to see this, too. How does David come out of the cave and do the good? He comes with humility. He comes with reverence. He comes with the right heart. He doesn't come with a mean spirit at Saul. Like, look at that. You see this? He's not vindictive. He's not vengeful. He's not arrogant, boastful, proud. But he's also not retreating into the recesses of the cave. He comes out and he points out the evil that he's done. Also in verse 10, we see the same. We see, behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against the Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. And he just wants to point out, you see what you've become, Saul? Come on, man. Do you really want to be this kind of person? Do you see how this is twisted? You You're going after me and you can see everything that you accuse me of. I'm not. I'm not that. And sometimes the best good that we can do and it depends on the situation is just to like move into someone's heart humbly and just say, "You see what your heart is? Do you really want to be this way towards me?" Now, I don't know how they'll respond. We don't know how they'll respond. But sometimes there is a good in meeting the evil just with good. There's all sorts of ways where we can work to try to diffuse the situation, to diffuse those things. There's no guarantee, but we are responsible for how we act to the Lord. We are responsible to respond with that godly conviction. And we are responsible not to retreat and not to act with revenge, but to meet it with good. And that's what David shows us here. David avoided also, this is the other piece about revenge. Sometimes avoiding revenge means restraining other people. And I pointed it out in that text. David not only showed Saul good, but some of the good that he showed Saul in that moment. We see in verse 6 and 7 where it says, he said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed." So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. It in that in that sense right there where it says he did not permit them to attack. The Hebrew is really nuanced right there because it uses a very strange word that that theologians kind of wrestle over. It it it says that he like divided or cut his men. And we have to kind of wonder that how do we interpret that? But there's something hinted at in the way that the Hebrew is there is that David either had to start threatening people, you're not going to do this thing. Stop it. Stop it. You know, and he's like whispering in the cave or that he gets out his knife and is like, I'm going to cut you. You know, whatever it is, David had to either restrain guys or it got it got a little bit heated there in that moment in an understandable way because of these guys who were worldly reasoning. They're like, "Have you lost your mind? We can end all this right now." But David responding with godly conviction and rightly responding to evil shows the people around him this is the better way. This is how we honor God. We don't become like him. We don't meet evil with evil. Guys sober up just for a second. And there will be times as believers where we are called into places where we've been hurt together. And we need to remind one another, stop it. Reflect. Think about this for just a minute. Listen to the voice of God. Think about God's character. Is this what we want to become? Is this what we want to to take out in our own lives? So instead, David shows mercy to his enemy. That's ultimately what David does. And we see in Proverbs 25 uh something about how we're called to meet. It says, "If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you." This verse is quoted again in the New Testament as well. And theologians have spilled much ink on understanding this. I think ultimately we can see the point. When you meet evil with good, it is like dumping something on someone that has this almost burning and conviction on their lives. I think we lose the metaphor somewhere in the Hebrew there. And and some people say that it has a purifying effect. It leads people to repentance. It's like the holy coals from the altar that get poured out on a person. Maybe it has this rebuking sort of sobering reflection about it. whatever it may be. I think at the end of the day, we see that when we do that, it's not about getting even and revenge by giving them good. I got them back. I did some good when they were evil. That's not the spirit of the text right there. The spirit of the text is that we responded with good, with mercy in that moment. And it has this sobering reality on a person's life and on their heart that begins to oftentimes produce repentance in their life. That's what we actually see right here in the text with Saul. It says that as soon as David verse 16, as soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Saul realizes what he's become. He realizes what he's done. We're not guaranteed to always get this response, but scripture does teach that there is some sort of power in meeting evil, in meeting wrongful treatment, with mercy, with turning and showing good. Jesus teaches us to turn the other cheek. And as I reflected even on that that phrase from the sermon on the mount, it's not you just absorb it, but that you also give good that you turn to the other side as well. Do you need do you need to work this out more? Is there is do you and meeting them with good going the extra mile when you're conscripted to do work? Not just retreating, not just revenge, but meeting it with the mercy of God and the good of God. And think about the impact of this. Think about the impact of our world. There are people who share different who don't share uh they may be anti-religious. They may be anti-Christianity. They may be um ideologically set against a lot of the teachings of the Bible and against what Christianity represents. And instead of us sort of creating this sort of weird wall where we don't want to acknowledge or embrace or go out of the cave to people like that, what if we met people in those places of life and in those conversations and we just spoke with grace and with truth? We didn't we didn't come with condemnation. We didn't come to try to find that zinger of a truth nugget that we could throw on them and disprove them and get them, but we just invited them maybe to explore Jesus to look and see the one that we serve. Is he true? Because if he is, then that means something for all of us. It means that we have to respond in some way to who he is and what he said. And I think that that in that way we can see people in the image of God. See them for who they are. Responding in that way. And it changes people. It changes our land. When we meet evil with good, it is such a gospel witness in this world because that is not the way of the world. It's not the way of our culture. But the reality of it is is that you and this is the fourth thing here that we throw out. We can't do it. We need to realize that we can try in all of our might to be good to try to respond. But, you know, if we only do it in our own strength if if if in our own flesh, outside of God, outside of all of this, and we say, "I'm just going to try to be a good person. I'm going to try to always respond with good and nice, and I'm going to sugarcoat it to people. If it kills me, it will kill you. It will frustrate you. It will leave you religious, but on the inside twisted and frustrated and aggravated when people don't respond the way you want. When they still inflict more harm at you, when it didn't work as if it was some sort of formula we use. And you will be left with frustration in your life over and over again. But if we reflect on what Christ did for us, if we reflect that ultimately when we were against God, when we were just like the people in that day who caused him to suffer at the hands of evil men and why? so that he could do good and return good for evil. To to to absorb all of the guilt and all of the shame and all the sin and all the things that we had done in our own life and to bear them on the cross for us to to to not and I don't want this to sound conceptual to think I even thought about it this week to think about the fact that you're like you're like an a child who ran away. You're you're you're against your parents. You can't stand them. You don't want to have anything to do with them. God made you. God loved you. God created you. God breathed life into you. Wanted good for your life. And you run off and you have nothing to do with your parent. You have no care for them. In fact, you live in spite of them. Sometimes you live with this animosity toward them in your life. That's our life with God. God did all these great things. He loved us. He cared for us. He called us to good things. and we were uninterested and many times we viewed him as our enemy. And yet he loved us. He sought us. He sought our good. And he met all of our evil, not with evil, but with a call to himself. And he absorbed all of our wrong and our guilt and our shame and our sin. And when you begin to understand and see that that is your Lord, that is what he did for you. And then he turns and calls you to live that. You're empowered with a worship. He did that for me. And through that, through that power, through the power of the spirit, of that revelation of what God has done for you, you then are enabled to go out into this world and say, "I don't want to be merciful. I don't want to be I want to either be wounded or I want to be revengeful to people but I don't want to forgive and I don't want to meet them with good. They deserve this but because what you did for me God because of all that you've done for me and I didn't deserve it and you you met me. I was the other I was them. I was once them and you showed me this and it changed everything about my life. You now have the power to go out and walk in the same way as a follower of Christ. Not through sheer will but by the power of his spirit in your life. I hope that makes sense. It changes everything when you understand what God has done for you. It changes everything. And our response isn't obligation. It's worship. It's love. And it flows through us into the world around and makes it in a way where our enemies can sometimes become friends because of the power of God. heaping coals in people's lives, making those who were against us for us. David ultimately gets this, but he doesn't always get it. And we see in David's life where he oftentimes becomes like a Saul. He often times becomes vengeful. Later in his life, he's going to commit bad things. He's going to recommend things to his son even to sort of even the score on some old rivalries. David doesn't do this perfectly, but his life points to one who would come in the line of David. It points to the need for one who would show us perfectly what it is to respond to evil and to respond to our enemy. And Christ came and he suffered at the hands of ungodly men for us because he loved us. And he showed us and empowered us to do the same. He did this so that he might show mercy and ultimately a restorative justice to any who would come to him. Do you know of that mercy? Then go and do likewise. Let's pray. As we pray for a moment, just in your own heart, in your own place, I don't know our stories or where we're at, but I think even now just before the Lord, ask, "Do I have an enemy, Lord? Am I carrying something? Do I have a spirit of either revenge or retreat in my own heart?" and invite the Lord in that moment when he shows it to bring healing to bring healing to our own soul and to our own heart and to our own life. We're not meant to carry that thing. We're meant to lay it down to lay our burdens down at his feet. And so even in this moment as the Lord maybe reveals to you and we pray, I just want you in that posture to give it to the Lord to ask him to heal those places in your heart so that you can have that spirit of mercy for those around you who might be your enemy. Lord, this text is so far above us. I'm not certain that if in David's situation, running from my life and angry and frustrated, if I would have had the power to be like David, you know, ultimately, Lord, we know in our own heart, I'm not like David. I'm not like Christ. I turn vengeful. I want to get even. I get frustrated and angry, and I'm always thinking about subtle ways to get back at people. That's that's the proclivity of our heart. And yet we are reminded again and again this is not the way of God and that you have called us to more and to better. You are called us to respond with humility and grace and truth. And so Lord we just lay these things at your feet. We lay our burdens. We lay our hurt. We lay our anger. We lay our frustration. We lay our bitterness at your feet. We pray Lord that you would heal our heart. That you would come by the power of your spirit and bring healing and renewal. That you might give us the power to return good for evil. to show mercy to those who are our enemies. So that the power of the gospel may flow through us and that we may see how God turns enemies into brothers and sisters and friends and how we as a church can model that and become that even in our community boldly, faithfully, courageously because of what Christ has done for us. It's in your name we pray. Amen.